and Subsidiary Rights Guide April 2010 Adult Titles What happens when our prayers are answered? A dazzling novel of the miraculous… It is strange and fascinating to me to think of people ― Avila in particular ― praying me into existence. Sydney Peony Kent is nineteen years old. She was a longed-for IVF baby, ‘product of an unknown egg and unknown sperm’ implanted in her mother, Avila. Avila not only used the latest scientific techniques to conceive Sydney, but also prayed to the Bambinello, a small carved and jewelled statue of the infant Jesus housed in the church of Santa Maria in Aracoeli in Rome and said to have miraculous properties. Avila’s distant relative, Father Roland Bruccoli, was conceived in a more conventional manner, but his mother too prayed to the Bambinello before his birth ― and that of his twin sister Eleena. It is when the adult Roland is visiting the church of Santa Maria one Child of the evening that the Bambinello is stolen. Roland hopes that Father Cosimo, an archivist, Twilight poet and riddler said to speak in the ancient green language of the troubadours, can CARMEL BIRD assist in discovering what has happened to the Bambinello. But when matters of belief Fiction are involved, nothing is straightforward, as Sydney discovers herself when she too February 2010 becomes caught up in tracing the Bambinello’s fate. 9780732284541 210 x 135mm PB Deftly weaving together religion, science, pregnancies wanted and unwanted, love, loss 368pp and belief, Carmel Bird has created a luminous novel that both questions and celebrates Rights: World the miraculous. Praise for Carmel Bird: 'a powerful and lyrical writer' The Bulletin 'one of Australia's finest storytellers' The Sydney Morning Herald • For readers of Angela Carter, Fay Weldon, Sally Vickers Carmel Bird is primarily a writer of fiction. Her first collection of short stories was published in 1983, since when she has published novels, essays, anthologies, and also books on how to write. She is one of Australia's best known and most respected writers, previously shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Award. A dazzling novel about writers and writing, love and loss ... the first adult novel from an multi-award-winning children’s writer ‘He’s the best writer,’ she said ... ‘The very best. I read everything he wrote. Everything.’ Charlie Bloome wants to be a writer. Twenty-three years old, he is studying literature and living with his gamine partner, Alice ―‘Lootie’ ― who plans to be a teacher and is less than supportive of Charlie’s dreams. Into their lives comes the flamboyant Sebastian Chanteleer, an ageing but internationally acclaimed children’s writer. Upon meeting, Lootie and Chanteleer establish an immediate bond. As the children’s writer makes his presence felt in the younger couple’s lives, Charlie struggles to come to terms with his own past and identity, and with what is happening to Lootie. Does Charlie have what it takes to be a writer? Does Chanteleer represent the best or worst a writer can be? The Children’s And what happens to those caught up in a writer’s world? Writer Gary Crew has crafted a compelling and superbly written study of passions and ambitions, GARY CREW and an insider’s look at the creative process and the foibles and delusions of those who Fiction practise it. September 2009 9780732285869 Gary Crew has written over fifty books for children and young adults and won many 210 x 135 mm PB awards both internationally and in Australia (including the Australian Children’s Book 384pp Council Book of the Year four times) and both the New South Wales and Victorian Rights: World Premier's Award for Children's Literature. He lives with his wife, Christine, on their property in Maleny in Queensland. Gary is Associate Professor (Creative Writing) at the University of the Sunshine Coast. She's just become the youngest, and most famous, First Lady of the United States … Governor Marshall Avery is America’s most eligible bachelor, a millionaire businessman positioning himself to run for the highest office in the land. Marshall is smart enough and tough enough, but not quite warm enough for the job. He needs a wife who can soften his image, show his human side. Beth Wilford is all that, and more. Once her presence in his life becomes public, she becomes a magnet for journalists -- and a public -- hungry for a political romance. Young, beautiful, and with an impeccable political pedigree, Beth has the poise not to falter under the barrage of flashbulbs. But even Beth could not imagine that she would take an assassin’s bullet … Sharp, witty, insightful and unputdownable, The President's Wife is not only a suspenseful story of a public marriage and a telling account of political spin and manipulation, but an The President’s Wife examination of society’s obsession with ‘princesses’ -- those women like Diana, Jackie and THEA WELSH Evita, who exercise a deep fascination in the lives of millions. Fiction March 2010 • Dazzling, long-awaited new novel from award-winning author 9780732290122 • Compulsive from the very first page 234 x 153mm pb • Witty, gossipy, surprising -- and beautifully crafted to keep the pages turning 464pp • Will appeal to our ongoing fascination with 'behind the scenes' stories of celebrity life and Rights: World excl US, famous women's lives in particular -- enter the goldfish bowl Canada, Germany • Will appear to fans of The West Wing, Curtis Sittenfeld's American Wife, Joyce Carol Oates' Blonde Thea Welsh is the author of the memoir The Cat Who Looked At The Sky (Flamingo 2003), and the novels Welcome Back (Random House 1999) and The Story Of The Year Of 1912 In The Village Of Elza Darzins , which won the 1990 National Book Council ‘Banjo’ Award. She lives in Sydney with her partner. A stunning story of Ireland, of fathers and sons, and the power of memories … Matti Finch is just a kid living with his aunt in the south of Ireland in the late 1980s. Life is hard, unemployment is high, and the Finch family’s circumstances are desperate. Matti talks to his mother every day, but he hasn’t seen his father Dave for six months. Dave’s been trying to face his family, but there are just too many demons. He can’t stop remembering how he and his brother Matthew escaped the troubles of Northern Ireland and made a new home down South. And how they both fell in love with the same woman … For Matti and Dave, it won’t be easy finding a way back to each other. But even when it seems there’s nothing left to lose, hope is never far away … Remember June • Author’s previous novel, One More Time, sold over 7000 copies (BookScan) -- a strong DAMIEN LEITH debut • Perennial popularity of Irish family stories -- think Frank McCourt Fiction • Author’s new album of the same name releases late 2009 – hear the song ‘Remember March 2010 June’ at www.sendspace.com/pro/dl/vs4cx2 9780732286828 210 x 153mm pb Praise for One More Time: 256pp ‘…a deceptively simple story with a nice twist at the end and deeper meanings that sink in Rights: World on reflection.' Canberra Times 'an entertaining yarn that’s well-written to boot’ NW Magazine. 'an absorbing first novel' Woman's Day Damien Leith was born in Ireland and became an Australian citizen in January 2007. He is the winner of television’s Australian Idol 2006. Damien lives in Sydney with his wife and two sons. HarperCollins published Damien's first novel, One More Time , in 2007. A novel of love, ladders, and the unexpected … Paula Sanchez is famous in Seville. She is not only mistress of an important bishop, but thanks to her work as an artist’s model, her image has appeared in many of the most famous paintings of the time. Now she is sitting for Harman Weddesteeg, a Flemish artist visiting Seville. Paula, along with Father Rastro, the monk Victor Maria, and a horse, are all models for Harmen’s painting of the penitent Magdalen. But Seville is a dangerous place, and the Inquisitor has his eye on what might be happening in the artist’s studio, to the disquiet of the young painter Velasquez, who slips through the streets on his own quest for love. Seville is also living through the aftermath A Woman of of the expulsion of the Moors, and the monastery contains a number of Morisco boys, Seville bent on escape. SALLY MUIRDEN Fiction Meanwhile, Paula has discovered the perfect way to slip away from the cares of life ― December 2009 by skipping from rooftop to rooftop with the ladder man, who visits the Sevillians’ 9780732290597 balconies each evening at dusk. Eventually Paula gains her own ladder, and is invited to 210 x 135mm PB the laddermen’s ball. 240pp Rights: World Sallie Muirden is a poet and novelist. Her first novel, Revelations of a Spanish Infanta, won the 1996 HarperCollins Fiction Prize and was shortlisted for the New South Wales Literary Awards for Fiction. Her second novel, We Too Shall be Mothers, was published in 2001. Sallie lives in Melbourne with her husband and two children. He was our man in Peking. She was ... everybody's. ‘Cleverly constructed, this is to bodice ripping what Harvard is to Play School.’ Qantas: The Australian Way George Ernest Morrison is ‘our man in Peking’ ― the London Times ’ correspondent in China. Born in Australia, Morrison has travelled widely, but now in his middle forties has settled into China. He is something of a hero ― wounded in the Boxer rebellion, and actually reported in the Times as dead ― and highly respected for his knowledge of China.